Tuesday morning, May 29 by Ray

The "J-Square Cafe"
(P.Jeff 'n Jerry)

We rose early as usually to an excellent breakfast of strong coffee; eggs and bacon. After the breakfast, several of us took a morning walk. It was another beautiful cool sunny day. On today’s walk we saw men and woman walking to work. We were walking later today, so we missed the kids walking to school in their uniforms. Most of these people were friendly. They would meet your eye with a smile and say ‘good morning’. Even though we are from widely different cultures; black and white, rich and poor, American and African, we could still share a casual greeting. We are all citizens of the world and we pray to the same God.

We spent an hour at the Helping Hands preschool playing with the small children. As expected they started out shy, but they quickly became gleeful playing with the parachute games and blowing bubbles. When you hug these kids it is surprising at how small and frail they feel. And their hands are so fragile and cold. Most of them would smile and even laugh, but there were a few with sad faces and I wonder what sadness they are enduring; the death of a mother or father, or sickness of a parent, hunger, or hopelessness...

We also had a sobering visit to the local government health clinic where they care for thousands, mainly coming form the poor villages. The clinic is small and run by a pleasant middle aged nurse, who was compassionate and knowledgeable, but obviously over worked and tired. She briefly took us through the various services they provide; screening and counseling for AIDS, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, treatment of various chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and nutrition for woman and children. What asked her what her biggest problems are and she said: “poverty, lack of education and malnutrition.” They lack the personnel and resources to treat most of these diseases. For example, they can diagnose and initiate the therapy for tuberculosis, but they can not provide essential service to assure ongoing compliance with the many months of medical therapy. And unfortunately the primary cause of multi drug resistant TB is poor compliance with primary medical therapy. 

I had the opportunity to join Pastor Mike on a visit to the provincial hospital. He needed to meet with some people from the government health ministry. Helping hands has carefully developed a network of home caregivers in several of the villages in and around Mafikeng. Over the last few years Helping Hands has trained these people to go into the homes of the sick and dying. With careful nurturing, they have developed the trust of the township population by being sensitive to the culture and traditions. For example, they get the support and endorsement of the township headman, who is like the chief. So with the years of work and developing these relationships, the caregivers are providing many services for the sick and dying, including bathing, feeding, taking them to the clinic for medication and comforting hospice care.

The Helping Hands providers see the people getting sick and dying of obvious advance stage of AIDS on nearly a daily basis, leaving orphans. Mike told me that these people usually die within three years of becoming ill. With early case identification and diagnostic testing in the field, Helping Hands care providers can streamline the healthcare delivery system by assuring these people get on ARV therapy sooner and therefore save lives. But Helping Hands needs to convince the Health Ministry to allow them to do this and refer patients directly to hospital for initiation of ARV therapy. Helping Hands can also provide the home care providers to monitor the compliance with therapy. Pastor Mike and I met with the chief medical director and head nurse manager of the ARV clinic. Pastor Mike had waited 5 months for this “discovery” meeting. Pastor Mike articulated the Helping Hands case. After the 30-minute meeting, Pastor Mike said it all depended on their people saying yes or no. What will it mean for Helping Hands? Another big commitment to serve the poor community. It will probably require hiring a nurse, at a cost of $10,000 to $15,000 per year, to staff the services including administering the testing, providing counseling and monitoring the ongoing therapy.

And you ask how we can help? For our church to make a difference in the health of these people is to allow these parents the time to raise their children in love and the faith of Jesus Christ.

Tuesday afternoon, May 29 by Diane

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Mark 10:14

The afternoon was one we will never forget.  We were blessed to visit the Areaganeng Primary School in one of the villages nearby.  The children were so excited when we arrived!  We could see them in the rooms standing on their desks.  The teachers gathered all the classes together out in the school yard.  There were 688 in all.  Some of the classrooms have about 60 children with one teacher.  The first grade has children that range from 7 to 18 years old as Helping Hands has worked very hard to get all children in school.  They have been successful in getting some of the older children in school for the first time this year.

The children sang several songs in their Setswana native language.  It was very impressive to see their dance skills while singing in such a large group.  One of the classes did a poetry reading.  The teacher told us the class was so excited about preparing for our visit and had been practicing for two weeks.

Then the children sang a song in English.  One of the phrases was “If you believe, and I believe, then Africa will be saved; if you believe in God’s Holy Spirit, Africa will be saved”!  The principal told us later that we had brought hope to a hopeless situation just by being there!  Then some of the older children performed a native dance.  It was an awesome heartwarming experience for all of us.  They were dancing barefoot, stomping their feet on the ground which was covered with small rocks and very hard dirt.  Can you imagine doing that?

We were the first Americans to ever visit their school and the smiles on their faces said it all.  All the children wanted to shake our hands and touch our arms.  You can imagine the chaos, but it was an incredible experience we wouldn’t have traded for anything.

Later we greeted the VBS students for day two of our program.  This time the children were much more comfortable with us and gave lots of hugs upon their arrival.  We sang songs and oh how they love to sing!  We taught them how to do the American wave; it was such fun for all of us.  We played games, colored, and had story time.  We passed out baseball caps before they left.  The smiles on their faces were a moment that will be cherished forever!  Right before they left they sang “This Little Light of Mine” to us.  They’re all such great singers.

Some of the group left VBS early and went to Helping Hand’s Molelwane Village Feeding Project.  The children come every day carrying their bowls.  They stand in line with the little ones in front singing while they wait. They get a meal of maze and beans and sit down in the dirt to eat.  Most just use their hands as they don’t have any utensils.  I’m glad they are fed, but to think this is the only meal of the day many of them will get is heartbreaking and brought tears to my eyes.

One story that Michelle, the leader of Helping Hands shared with us is typical of many similar situations.  One of our VBS students, a 14 year old girl who is in the first grade, takes care of her four younger siblings and an aging grandmother with dementia.  When Michelle found the family, the two youngest children had nearly starved to death.  Now they are much healthier but what a burden for such a young girl!

We blew up balloons and Carie made about one hundred animal figures out of them and Jerry made funny hats.  The children were very excited and it was so cute to see them all walking home with their colorful balloons!

At the end of the day, while walking with Cedrick, our Helping Hands Guide for the week, we ran into his teacher from primary school.  He was so proud to introduce her to us.  He was simply beaming when he told her that he had gotten his first job a month ago working for Helping Hands.

We were truly blessed to be able to experience all these special moments with such loving children today.